1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a music reproducing apparatus which stores, in a storage device, playlist data defining the order in which a plurality of music items are reproduced, displays the playlist data on a display unit, and reproduces the music items in the order defined by the playlist data. The present invention also relates to a computer-readable music reproducing program for the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been an automatic performance apparatus in which a plurality of music data sets each representative of a music piece and a music order data set representative of the order in which the plurality of music data sets are reproduced are stored in a directory so that the music data sets are reproduced in the order defined by the music order data (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-109470).
The above-described conventional apparatus is capable of reproducing all the music data sets stored in a directory in the order defined by music order data, however, the conventional apparatus is unable to reproduce a specific music data set of all the music data sets or sequentially reproduce specific music data sets of all the music data sets. To change the contents of a created music order data set, furthermore, the conventional apparatus requires its user to delete a music data set/sets from a list or add a music data set/sets to the list in editing mode in which music order data is edited. In a case where the user needs to select music data sets and arrange the music data sets in order of reproduction so that the reproduction of the music data sets is completed in a specified time period, for instance, the user has to have a multiplicity of possible music data sets and grasp the reproduction time of the respective music data sets, repeating the procedure of entering and deleting a combination of music data sets from among the multiplicity of music data sets until the user finds a desired combination. Such procedure is quite troublesome for the user.
When the user has a large number of music data sets to enter in the list, in addition, it is difficult for the user to recognize which data sets have been entered and which not. Furthermore, there can be a case in which a music data set is deleted although the music data set has been entered in music order data. In the conventional apparatus, however, it is difficult for the user to keep track of entry and deletion of music data sets because the user cannot recognize the deletion of a music data set until the music data sets are reproduced in accordance with music order data.